The technology disclosed in the present specification relates to an image processing device and an image processing method which process an image that tracks the movement of the head portion of a user. The technology also relates to a display device and a display method which display the image that tracks the movement of the head portion of the user. In addition, the technology relates to a computer program, and to an image display system.
An image display device that is fixed to the head portion or a face portion of the user that observes the image, that is, a head mounted display is known. The head mounted display has an image display unit for both right and left eyes, for example, is used together with headphones, and is configured to be capable of controlling the senses of sight and sound. If the head mounted display is configured to completely block out the outside world when mounted on the head portion, the virtual reality feeling is increased during viewing. The head mounted display is capable of showing different pictures for the right and left eyes, and if images with parallax in relation to the right and left eyes are displayed, it is possible to present a 3D image.
This type of head mounted display causes a virtual image to form on the retina of the eye to allow the user to observe the image. Here, when an object is in a position closer to the lens than the focal length, the virtual image is formed on the side of the object. For example, there is proposed a head mounted display in which a virtual image optical system with a wide angular field of view is disposed distanced only 25 millimeters in front of the pupil, a display panel with an effective pixel range of a size of approximately 0.7 inches is disposed further in front of the wide angular field of view optical system, and an enlarged virtual image of a display image is formed on the pupil of the user (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-141461).
Using this type of head mounted display, the user can observe an image that is obtained by cutting out a portion of a wide angle image. For example, there is proposed a head mounted display in which a head portion action tracking device formed of a gyroscope or the like is attached to the head portion and a user can perceive a picture of 360° of full space which tracks the movement of the head portion of the user (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-106322 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-256534). By causing a display region within a wide angle image to move so as to cancel out the movement of the head portion that is detected by the gyroscope, it is possible to reproduce an image which tracks the movement of the head portion, and the user experiences looking over the full space.